It didn’t take long for Marcus Burton to show the rest of the state he’s gunning for the 100-meter state title this year.
The Tigard sprinter kicked off his senior season with a win in the 100-meter at the Oregon Relays, held at Hayward Field at University of Oregon.
Last year, Burton qualified for the state championship meet and finished sixth in the 100-meter. So far this season, Burton has run the 100-meter at four events, and he’s finished first every single time. In the most recent event, as of our press deadline, Burton ran the 100-meter in 10.61 seconds, a school record at Tigard.
“He is a great kid, and he’s always having fun,” Tigard Head Coach Doug Kuffel said. “He’s very explosive, so he can pretty much do any event. He’s done the 100, 200, 400 and even dipped his toes in on long jump just to see how that goes. It’s exciting to see how his year will go.”
And even more than the wins, that’s what Kuffel is looking for out of his team, which he described as a young team.
“The great thing about track is that there’s an event for everybody,” he said. “You might think you’re a sprinter, but you end up being a thrower, or vice versa. That’s great. We want to get as many kids out as we can.”
Kuffel said he has a lot of freshmen on the team, and he always encourages his athletes to try at least two different events: one running and one throwing or jumping.
That willingness to try new events doesn’t extend to just kids on the team. Kuffel said he also tells kids from other sports that track can help them, as well.
“We can help them get stronger and faster for whatever sport they’re choosing to do,” he said. “Kellen Hughes is a really good soccer player, and he came out this year in his junior year. He’s already one of our best in the 400, and he’ll most likely be on our quarter-by-four team too.”
Kuffel also had a lot of praise for his girls distance team.
“Our girls’ distance crew is really solid,” he said. “They had a great cross country season this past year and qualified for the state meet. We have a few girls that should be able to qualify in the 3000, 1500, 800, and then a couple of them will probably end up on our four-by-four as well.”
One of those girls Kuffel shouted out is sophomore Sophia Service, who pulled in a first-place finish in the 3000-meter at the Vic Downs Mac Invite. At that same event, senior Sydney Swayne picked up the win in the 100-meter.
On the boys side of things, in terms of distance, Tigard also has returning state champ Paul Hretcanu, who won a state title last season in the 800-meter.
This year, Hretcanu has picked up first-place finishes in the 400-meter, 1500-meter, and 3000-meter.
In field events, junior Micah Smith has picked up two straight first-place finishes in high jump, as of our press deadline.
Junior Gabrielle Vasquez earned a first-place win in the javelin at the Sunset Team Challenge.
